Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Spying for the Mossad

People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Spying for the Mossad

People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran executed Wednesday a man it said worked for Israel's foreign intelligence agency and played a role in the 2022 killing of a Revolutionary Guard colonel in Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The report identified the man as Mohsen Langarneshin and said he was hanged. It called him a “senior spy” for the Mossad, who provided “technical support” in the assassination of Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, shot five times by gunmen on a motorbike outside his home in Tehran, The Associated Press reported.
The agency said the Mossad recruited Langarneshin in 2020 and that he met with Israeli intelligence officers in Georgia and Nepal.
Langarneshin reportedly rented safe houses for operatives in several Iranian cities, including Isfahan, when, in January 2023, bomb-carrying drones targeted what Iran described as a military workshop. Iran has accused Israel of being behind the attack.
The report said Langarneshin confessed in Iran's Revolutionary court, which usually provides a court-appointed lawyer and doesn't allow media access.
At the time of his assassination, local media identified Khodaei only as a “defender of the shrine,” a reference to Iranians who fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq within the Guard’s Quds force that oversees foreign operations.



US Imposes Fresh Sanctions on Iranian Exchange House, Shadow Fleet Vessels

US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent poses for a family photograph of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors as they meet to prepare the summit of heads of State and government to be held in June 2026 in Evian, in Paris on May 19, 2026. (AFP)
US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent poses for a family photograph of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors as they meet to prepare the summit of heads of State and government to be held in June 2026 in Evian, in Paris on May 19, 2026. (AFP)
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US Imposes Fresh Sanctions on Iranian Exchange House, Shadow Fleet Vessels

US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent poses for a family photograph of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors as they meet to prepare the summit of heads of State and government to be held in June 2026 in Evian, in Paris on May 19, 2026. (AFP)
US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent poses for a family photograph of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors as they meet to prepare the summit of heads of State and government to be held in June 2026 in Evian, in Paris on May 19, 2026. (AFP)

The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed sanctions on an Iranian foreign currency exchange house and what it said were front companies overseeing transactions on behalf of Iranian banks as the US maintains pressure on Tehran.

The move came after Iran said its latest peace proposal to the United States over the US-Israeli led war that started February 28 involves ending hostilities on all fronts including Lebanon, the exit of US forces ‌from areas close ‌to Iran, and reparations for destruction caused by ‌the ⁠conflict.

The Treasury Department ⁠imposed sanctions on the Iran-based Amin Exchange, also known as Ebrahimi and Associates Partnership Company, which it said has a widespread network of front companies spanning multiple jurisdictions, including in Türkiye and Hong Kong.

The US also blocked 19 vessels it said were involved in shipping Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals to foreign customers.

The Treasury ⁠Department said Iranian exchange houses facilitate billions of dollars ‌in foreign currency transactions a year, ‌enabling the government to evade sanctions and access the international financial system. It ‌said the front companies oversee hundreds of millions of dollars ‌in transactions on behalf of Iranian banks.

"Iran’s shadow banking system facilitates the illicit transfer of funding for terrorist purposes," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a release. "As Treasury systematically dismantles Tehran’s shadow banking system and shadow fleet under Economic ‌Fury, financial institutions must be alert to how the regime manipulates the international financial system to ⁠wreak havoc."

The sanctions block US assets of those designated and prevent Americans from doing business with them.

The US also designated vessels for transporting Iranian-origin oil, petroleum products and petrochemicals including the Barbados flagged liquefied petroleum gas tanker Great Sail, the Palau-flagged products tanker Ocean Wave, and the Panama-flagged chemical/oil tanker Swift Falcon.


Israel Finance Minister Says ICC Seeks Arrest Warrant Against Him

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks at a press conference regarding settlements expansion for the long-frozen E1 settlement, that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks at a press conference regarding settlements expansion for the long-frozen E1 settlement, that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israel Finance Minister Says ICC Seeks Arrest Warrant Against Him

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks at a press conference regarding settlements expansion for the long-frozen E1 settlement, that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks at a press conference regarding settlements expansion for the long-frozen E1 settlement, that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 14, 2025. (Reuters)

Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said Tuesday that the International Criminal Court prosecutor has requested an arrest warrant against him, accusing the Palestinian Authority of pushing for the move.

Smotrich said he would retaliate by ordering the evacuation of the Palestinian Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank.

"Last night I was informed that the criminal prosecutor of the antisemitic court in The Hague has filed a request for an international arrest warrant against me," Smotrich told a news conference broadcast on his X account Monday.

"As a sovereign and independent state, we do not accept hypocritical dictates from biased bodies that time and again take a stand against the State of Israel," he added, without disclosing the charges for which the warrant has been requested.

The ICC prosecutor's office said it was "unable to comment on media speculation or questions related to any alleged application for a warrant of arrest".

In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, to face accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity over Israel's actions during its war against Hamas in Gaza.

- 'Declaration of war' -

"Immediately upon the conclusion of my remarks here, we will sign an order to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar," Smotrich said, calling the warrant request "a declaration of war".

More than 750 people live in the community of Khan al-Ahmar, around 10 kilometers east of Jerusalem's Old City in the central West Bank and surrounded by Israeli settlements.

The Palestinian Authority's Settlement and Wall Resistance Commission urged the international community to stop the move.

"Targeting Khan al-Ahmar is part of a long-term strategic settlement project... through which Israel seeks to create complete settlement contiguity that would separate the northern West Bank from its south," the commission's minister, Muayad Shaaban, was quoted as saying.

Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog, also denounced the move.

"The Minister of Expulsion and Annexation seeks to take revenge on The Hague and the international community at the expense of one of the most vulnerable communities," it said.

Khan al-Ahmar sits near land Israel plans to use for its controversial E1 development project that would facilitate settlement expansion in the area near Jerusalem.

Smotrich, who lives in a settlement himself, is a staunch proponent of Israel annexing the West Bank.

"Under this government, we see that for the first time they've approved the very sensitive and significant plan of E1, and they're going ahead with plans to annex that entire region," Lior Amihai, Peace Now's executive director, told AFP.

"In order for them to annex the entire region, they need to also expel the Palestinian communities from there and Khan al-Ahmar is one of them," he added.


EU Denounces New US Waiver of Russian Oil Sanctions

European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Valdis Dombrovskis, looks on ahead of a G7 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Paris, France, May 18, 2026. (Reuters)
European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Valdis Dombrovskis, looks on ahead of a G7 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Paris, France, May 18, 2026. (Reuters)
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EU Denounces New US Waiver of Russian Oil Sanctions

European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Valdis Dombrovskis, looks on ahead of a G7 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Paris, France, May 18, 2026. (Reuters)
European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Valdis Dombrovskis, looks on ahead of a G7 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Paris, France, May 18, 2026. (Reuters)

The European Union criticized Tuesday the latest US waiver of sanctions on Russian oil, announced while G7 finance ministers were meeting to reach a common response to multiple economic challenges.

Washington's move aims to help lower energy prices that have skyrocketed since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran in February, effectively shutting the Strait of Hormuz to Gulf oil tanker traffic.

But EU economics commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis denounced the extensions, which have given Moscow a financial boost as it pursues its war against Ukraine.

"From the EU point of view, we do not think that this is a time to ease pressure on Russia," Dombrovskis told journalists while arriving for a second day of G7 talks in Paris.

"In fact, Russia is the one which is gaining from the war in Iran and the increase in fossil fuel prices," he said. "If anything, we would need to strengthen the pressure."

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is in Paris for the Group of Seven talks hosted by France, which currently chairs the group's rotating presidency.

"Secretary Bessent was reassuring us that this is a temporary measure, but we know that it's already a second extension of the measure which initially was meant to last only 30 days," Dombrovskis said.

French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said a joint statement would nonetheless be made following talks that are to wind up Tuesday.

"We've had extremely frank discussions between people who do not necessarily agree on everything, but who are able to talk about everything," he told journalists.

The talks aim to keep dialogue open as trade feuds spurred by US President Donald Trump's tariff blitz compound geopolitical tensions.